Should I make police report first or go TM Point to understand the situation first then only go make police report?

Does not matter which one is first. You can also do it concurrently.

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answered on Jun 30, 2017 at 22:20by MCMC

Dealers ringing up commissions via false registrations

PETALING JAYA: The practice of exploiting personal information has been a common occurrence in the telecommunications industry for a long time, a former industry insider said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said dealers stand to get about RM200 in commissions for each number they register.

“As long as the account is active for three months, they can get the commission.

“They can forge signatures and use photocopies of MyKad to register the numbers,” the source claimed.

The source, who was in the industry for 10 years, claimed that dealers “usually don’t care” about following industry guidelines as long as they continue receiving commissions and hit their key performance indicator targets.

The source said that even in clear cases of fraud, victims were still required to present themselves at the service centres with a police report and statutory declaration to confirm that they had not authorised the registration of the numbers.

“It’s a long procedure. Some service providers take months to retrieve all the (victims’) documents.

“It could take more than a year to clear the victims’ accounts, because there are many fraud cases,” the source claimed.

The Communications and Multimedia Consumer Forum of Malaysia (CFM) told The Star that it received 169 complaints between January last year and May this year regarding false registration of sim cards.

The forum was designated by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to protect the rights of consumers in that sector.

MCMC monitoring and compliance head Rafidah Mat Isa said telcos should inspect the dealerships responsible for registering the numbers without consent, so they could determine whether or not a syndicate was involved.

“It’s important for telcos to find out if syndicates were involved, because telcos have to bear the cost of unpaid bills.

“It’s a loss for them,” Rafidah said.

She added that under MCMC guidelines, it is mandatory for applicants to be physically present when registering their numbers.

Under the guidelines, dealers cannot keep photocopies of the applicants’ identity cards to prevent any possible abuse of their personal information.

“Applicants need to be physically present so dealers can see and ve­rify their identification documents in person.

“Dealers who proceed to register numbers without the applicants being present would be violating MCMC guidelines,” Rafidah said.

Those found guilty of violating the guidelines are liable to a fine not exceeding RM100,000 or a ma­­ximum jail term of two years, or both.

Since 2009, MCMC has issued about RM6.16mil in compounds to errant operators under Section 127 of the Communications and Multime­dia Act 1998.

GOMBAK: Beware whenever you are asked to divulge personal details – the information may end up in the hands of data-stealing syndicates.

A mute retiree learnt this the hard way when he found himself in debt for a postpaid line although he has never owned a mobile phone.

Liang Ngan Kan, 73, claimed that he now owes a telco RM1,800 after his personal details were apparently exploited by an unknown party to register several postpaid numbers in late 2015.

His wife Mariamah Anamalai, 62, and sister-in-law Papati, 66, also started receiving bills at around the same time even though they do not have accounts with the company.

Liang’s daughter Kasthuri, 32, was shocked that someone like her father – who has no practical use for a mobile phone – could be slapped with a hefty charge for a service he never subscribed to in the first place.

She lodged a police report on behalf of her parents and aunt, but decided against pursuing the case further as it required court appearances and filing statutory declarations.

“We decided to just ignore the bills because they are too much of a hassle for my parents who are old,” Kasthuri told The Star while visiting her family at a low-cost flat in Taman Prima Selayang, Batu Caves, recently.

Her parents and aunt were only three of some 15 people from the same residential area with such complaints.

Each victim has one principal line and several supplementary lines registered under their name.

Long-time resident Arokiasamy Thomas, 86, lodged two police reports after he started to receive the bills in mid-2015.

Bills arrived every month, adding to Arokiasamy’s so-called “debt” of thousands of ringgit.

For two years, he received aggressive letters and calls from debt collection agencies, threatening legal action against him should he fail to settle the arrears.

The other victims also received similar calls and messages, which they have described as “bordering on harassment”.

Another victim was single mother Renukah Doraisamy, 40, who runs a stall in Taman Prima Selayang.

“Most of the victims are either retired, unemployed or earning low wages.

“They (debt collectors) are always calling us,” she lamented. “It’s causing us a lot of distress.”

The victims said various organisations would come to the low-cost housing area with donations, such as rice and other provisions.

In order to receive the items, residents had to give the donors a photocopy of their MyKad.

They suspect that this could be how their details fell into the wrong hands.

Eight of the victims, including Arokiasamy and Renukah, lodged a report at the Malaysian Communi­cations and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) headquarters in Cyberjaya on June 8.

The cases have since been resolved.

The service provider confirmed that the registration for the postpaid accounts was “unauthorised”.

“This has been classified as fraudulent,” its representative wrote in an e-mail.

The service provider said it would waive the outstanding bills for the unauthorised accounts.......